Fifteen years ago there was published in this journal a useful correction to what had previously been published concerning the descent of the immigrant Thomas LIGON from the family of LYGON of Madresfield, co. Gloucester,1 and thus from the Lords BERKELEY and other notable medieval English families. The authors apparently did not notice that John SMYTH of Nibley had covered the ground before them2 and omitted a number of important documents in their account. Having been requested to review the proposed line by a descendant,3 and since the promised further account which had been planned never appeared, it seemed appropriate to review the line of descent from William LYGON of Madresfield to the immigrant with the additional information.

William LYGON of Madresfield, born in or about 1512,4 died at Madresfield 8 Sept. 1567 and was buried at Great Malvern “in the high chancel” 2 Oct. 1567.5 His will, dated 22 Aug. 1567 and proved 12 Aug. 1568,6 named his eldest son Richard as executor and entailed upon him the lion’s share of the family lands. His second son Thomas was named in the remainder after Richard’s heirs male. He did not mention his three younger sons, his three elder daughters (all married by then) or his wife, though she

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1 Michael J. Wood and Gary Boyd Roberts, “Four Thomas LYGONs (LIGONs): An Abstract of New Findings,” The Virginia Genealogist, v. 22 (1978), pp. 353-55. These notes do not concern themselves with the career and family of (Col.) Thomas LIGON in Virginia.

3 Brice M. Clagett, Esq., of Washington, D.C., who has kindly granted permission to publish the findings separately in advance of the appearance of his book on the ancestry of his children, to be published next year.

As early as 1529 he contracted to marry Eleanor DENNIS,7 daughter of (Sir) William DENNIS of Dirham, co. Gloucester, by his wife Anne, daughter of Maurice, Lord BERKELEY.8 She was dead by 2 March 1585/6 when the administration of her intestate estate was granted to her three younger sons, Thomas, Hugh and Francis LYGON; the probate documents are lost but the act book preserves the date.9 She was probably residing on the LYGON dower lands in co. Gloucester.

As Richard LYGON, eldest son and heir, was age thirty years and more when his father’s inquisition post mortem was taken,10 thus born in or before 1537, and if three of Richard’s four sisters were married by 1567, so born by 1547, we pay [sic] place the birth of Thomas LYGON, second son, in about 1545. He was buried at Elkstone, co. Gloucester, as “Thomas LIGON, Gent.,” on 14 Aug. 1603.11 No probate record appears to exist for him but there seems to be no reason to doubt the list of his seven children given by Smyth, who would have known his eldest son Thomas, receiver for his cousin Henry, Lord BERKELEY, personally.12

Thomas LYGON married his cousin Frances DENNIS, daughter of Hugh and Katharine (TRYE) DENNIS of Puchlechurch, co. Gloucester.13 She survived her husband and died at Caludon, co. Warwick, and was buried 30 Jan. 1634/5 at Walsgrave-on-Sowe in the same county;14 her will, dated 17 Oct. 622 [sic] and proved 1 June 1625,15 mentions only two children, her sons Thomas, named executor, and Richard.

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7 William D. LIGON, The LIGON Family and Connections (2 v.; Hartford, Conn., 1947-57), v. 1, p. 45, dates the marriage contract to Autumn 1529, probably from the original in the Madresfield archives.

8 Smyth, op. cit., v. 2, p. 178. For a family pedigree see also (Sir) John Maclean and W.C. Heane, ed., The Visitation of the County of Gloucester … (Harleian Society, Publications, Visitation ser., v. 21; London, 1885), pp. 50-51.

15 Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 70 Clarke (1625), in which it is said that she is residing at Merson, co. Wilts.

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The son Thomas LYGON, born in or about 1577 (aged 44 “or thereabouts” in 1621),16 was buried at Walsgrave-on-Sowe as “Mr. Thomas LIGON from Stoke” on 20 Dec. 1626.17 He married there 18 Aug. 162318 Elizabeth PRATT (“Mr. Thomas LIGGINS and Elizabeth PRATT from Caludon”), baptized at Stoke-Biggin, co. Warwick, 10 Oct. 1602,19 buried at Walsgrave-on-Sowe as “Elizabeth LIGON” 19 Aug. 1631,20 daughter of Dennis or Dionis PRATT and his wife. The nuncupative will of Denis PRATT, undated but proved 21 July 1614,21 left everything to his wife Ann “to bring up the children”; the estate was a small one and it appears that Elizabeth PRATT was well below the social level of her husband, for she is not called “Mrs.” at marriage, at burial or in her estate proceedings. John Smyth does not mention any prior wife for Thomas LYGON and, given the short period of time between marriage and the birth of the son Thomas (less than five months) it is likely that Elizabeth PRATT had been a housekeeper or maidservant for Thomas LYGON and was impregnated by him.

Administration of the estate of Thomas LYGON “of Stoke in the County [sic] of the City of Coventry” was granted to his widow Elizabeth 16 Feb. 1626/7.22 Stoke and Walsgrave-on-Sowe are suburban parishes to the City of Coventry while Caludon was part of the ancient parish of St. Michael’s, Coventry; since the early registers of St. Michael’s are destroyed, it is good that the LYGONs seem to have had their baptisms, marriages and burials at Walsgrave-on-Sowe (sometimes “Sowe,” a short form, is found).

Administration of the estate of Elizabeth PRATT alias LIGGON of Aldridge, co. Warwick [Aldridge is in fact in co. Stafford] was granted 30 Aug. 1631 to Richard LIGGON, paternal uncle of Thomas and Joan LIGGON, children of the said Elizabeth.23 Thomas had been baptized 11 Jan. 1623/4 and Joan 3 April 1625 at Walsgrave-on-Sowe as “of Caludon.”24 While John Smyth

21 Consistory Court of Lichfield, Original wills, 1614. The register entries for 1614 in the Stoke Parish register are virtually illegible.

22 Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Admon. Act. Book 1625-27, p. 133.

23 Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Admon. Act Book 1631-33, p. 48.

24 Walsgrave-on-Sowe Parish register, unpaged.

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satisfies himself with saying that Thomas and Elizabeth “hath issue” and does not name or pursue the two orphans,25 the fact that the young Thomas LIGON was a cousin both to the Lord BERKELEY and to Governor (Sir) William BERKELEY [Margery (LYGON) BERKELEY, the Governor’s paternal grandmother, was the eldest daughter of William and Eleanor (DENNIS) LYGON]26 would go far to explain the patronage which brought him to Virginia, and, given the lack of any other qualifying Thomas LIGON/LYGON of the proper age in England, and the names that the immigrant (Col.) Thomas LIGON gave to his children and the positions of responsibility and authority held by the latter at an early age in Virginia,27 gives no reason to doubt the identification made by Messrs. Wood and Roberts as the correct parentage for the immigrant.

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25 Smyth, op. cit., v. 2, p. 184.

26Ibid., v. 1, p. 261; v. 2, p. 184.

27 The best summary of the life and career of (Col.) Thomas LIGON in Virginia is in John Frederick Dorman, ed., Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5 (3rd ed.; Richmond, 1987), pp. 356-57.

The following abstract of new findings concerning the immigrant Col. Thomas LIGON of Henrico Co., Va., his father, grandfather and son, is a preliminary report on a major re-examination in both England and Virginia of the immigrant’s immediate family, of all traceable contemporary English LYGONs, and of the family’s numerous colonial connections and notable American progeny. A much longer article is planned, but the following will add much to, and correct various mistakes in, the major treatments of this family in print — William Daniel LIGON, The LIGON Family and Connections (2 v.; Hartford, Conn., 1947-57), and articles by John Bennett Boddie in William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, 2nd series, v. 16 (1936), pp. 289-315, and Virginia Historical Genealogies (Redwood City, Calif., 1954), pp. 343-44. Mr. LIGON confused his immigrant ancestor with the latter’s almost certain father, and both Mr. LIGON and Mr. Boddie confused Col. Thomas and his son. Both authors too used the unusually rich muniments at Madresfield, the LYGON ancestral seat in Worcestershire, but apparently did not examine the various parish registers, chancery depositions, or even Prerogative Court of Canterbury administrations, covering the immigrant’s immediate family. Thus the death in England of the Calouden farmer, his approximate age (badly guessed by Mr. LIGON), the given names of his wife and children, and the very existence, then, of a younger Thomas LYGON, hypothesized by Boddie, who is almost certainly the immigrant — all these facts are now being reported for the first time. Recently published Virginia materials, the originals of which Mr. LIGON and Mr. Boddie variously misinterpreted, allow us rather easily to unravel the confusion between the immigrant and his son. Col. Thomas LIGON of Henrico Co., Va., his almost certain father and grandfather, and his son, are thus as follows:

1. Thomas LYGON, second son of William LYGON and Eleanor DENNIS of Madresfield, Worcestershire, lived in Elkstone, Gloucestershire (not Elston, Wiltshire), married Frances DENNIS, a cousin, daughter of Hugh DENNIS and Katherine TRYE of Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire. As “Francisca LIGON ux’ Thomas LIGON nuper de Elkeston,

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gen.” she was fined 20 shillings for recusancy in 1592.1 Frances, then a widow, was of Merson, Wiltshire, when she made her will on 17 Oct. 1622, but later lived with her son Thomas at Calouden and was buried in the adjacent parish of Sowe 30 Jan. 1624/5. Her will was proved by him 1 June 1625.2 Through a line that Mr. Roberts cannot confirm, and of one link of which he is dubious, John TRYE (1513-1579) of Hardwick, Gloucestershire, an uncle of Frances DENNIS, is charted by Gerald PAGET as an ancestor of H.M. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.3

3. Thomas LYGON, baptized at Sowe, Warwickshire, 11 Jan. 1623/4, is almost certainly the immigrant Col. Thomas LIGON of Virginia, surveyor and burgess of Henrico County.6 He made his will 10 Jan. 1675 and administration was granted his widow and executrix, Mary, 16 March 1675/6.7 He married ca.1650 Mary HARRIS, born ca.1625,8 daughter of Thomas HARRIS (born 1587) and Adria, perhaps

6 For his career as burgess see H.R. McIlwaine, ed., Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1619-1658/59 (Richmond, 1915), pp. xxii, 95, and for his various land patents see Nell M. Nugent, Cavaliers and Pioneers, v. 1 (Richmond, 1934), pp. 440, 516; v. 2 (Richmond, 1977), pp. 49, 51-52, 92, 116, 124 (he is referred to progressively in these grants as major, lieutenant colonel, colonel, and “Mr., Sr.”).

GURGANEY.9 Col. LIGON surveyed an area called “Mawburne” or Malvern Hills in Henrico County (in England Malvern Hills are very near Madresfield) and at least once acted as an agent for Sir William BERKELEY, governor of Virginia, his almost certain second cousin.10 His children were Thomas Jr., William, Joan, Richard, Mathew, Hugh and Mary, named undoubtedly after himself (Thomas Jr.), his wife (Mary), his sister (Joan), two of his father’s brothers (William and Richard11), and his father’s maternal grandfather, Hugh DENNIS of Pucklechurch. Nothing can be found to document a later English career for Thomas LYGON, born 1623/4, and no other Thomas is unaccounted for and of the right age to be the immigrant.

4. Thomas LIGON, Jr., born ca.1651,12 who was dead by 20 Aug. 1678.13 The immigrant’s eldest son, he left no issue and probably died unmarried.14 A fifth Thomas LIGON (died 1705) was the eldest son of Thomas, Jr.’s, next brother, William LIGON and the heir-at-law of his immigrant grandfather.15

11 William LYGON of Calouden, gent., buried at Sowe 16 Aug. 1616 (although possibly the immigrant named his second son after Sir William BERKELEY, a likely sponsor or protector, as well) and Richard LYGON, also called “LIGON” in various English depositions, almost certainly the historian of Barbadoes.

+*1. THOMAS1 HARRIS, Gent., subscriber to the Second Charter issued 23 May 1609,2 came to Virginia before 1616 and is believed to have arrived, 1611, aboard the Prosperous “in May.” Listed as an Ancient Planter, he was settled, 1623/4, with his wife at Neck of Land, Charles City.3 His muster there, 1624/5, listed him as aged 38, his first wife *Adria, aged 23, who came in the Marmaduke, Nov. 1621, and Ann WOODLASE, “their kinswoman aged 7.”

1 William Glover Stanard, Chart of Some of the Descendants of Captain Thomas HARRIS of Henrico County who Came to Virginia in 1611 (Richmond, 1893); William Daniel LIGON, The LIGON Family and Connections (n.p., 1947), pp. ix, 306-83, 844; V IV. pp. 248-49; V VII, p. 204; Malcolm Hart Harris, “Three William HARRISes in Hanover County,” The Virginia Genealogist, XXII, pp. 187-93; William R. Taylor, “Evidence of the Descent of William4 HARRIS of Goochland Co., Va., and his Father William3 HARRIS of Henrico, New Kent, Hanover and Louisa Cos., Va., from Maj. William2 HARRIS son of Capt. Thomas1 HARRIS of Jamestown,” The Virginia Genealogist, XXII, pp. 261-70.

2 Br. Gen. p. 913.

3 Hotten, p. 170; CP I, p. xxxiv.

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Land originally assigned HARRIS within Diggs Hundred (later Bermuda Hundred), of record 11 Nov. 1635 for 750 acres, lay “southward upon the land of Edward VIRGANY [GURGANEY] and thence extending Northward upon the land of Joane his [second] wife…,” 100 acres due him as being an Ancient Planter on order of the late Treasurer and Company, 18 Nov. 1618, and 650 acres due for transportation of 13 persons.4

Thomas1 HARRIS came into possession of the GURGANEY land by 2 May 16365 and repatented the 700 acres included in this tract in Henrico, 12 July 1637, “called by the name of Longfield, with swamp and marshes … southeast towards Bremoes devident … 400 acres granted unto Edward GURGANEY by order of the Court, 1 October 1617 … and bequeathed by Ann GURGANEY, widdowe of the said Edward, to Thomas HARRIS as by her last will dated 11 February 1619 [1619/20].”6 In a second renewal of the patent for “Longfield,” 25 Feb. 1638/9, HARRIS claimed 100 acres in the name of his “first wife Adry HARRIS, being an Ancient Planter.”7 These facts suggest that Adria perhaps was the daughter of Edward and Ann GURGANEY and that her passage, 1621, on the Marmaduke,8 was a return trip to Virginia rather than an initial voyage. Adria had died by 11 Sept. 1626 when Rebecca GRAYE testified in court that Goodwife WRIGHT, a suspected witch, had told Thomas HARRIS he “should burie his first wiefe being then betrothed unto him (which cam so to pass).”9

HARRIS served as Burgess for the Neck of Land, 1624, for Henrico, 1640, 1647-48,10 was appointed, Aug. 1626, as one of the “Commissioners for the Upper Parts,” which included Henrico, and in Dec. 1640 was Commander of Henrico County.11 His will, now lost, was made about 1649.12

He married (1) Adria, perhaps GURGANEY, and (2), after 1625, Joane —-.13

Issue: (by 1) 2. MARY2; (by 2) 3. WILLIAM2.

4 Patent Bk. 1, p. 304.

5Ibid., p. 337.

6Ibid., p. 438.

7Ibid., p. 615.

8 The Marmaduke brought over, 1621, a number of “maids for wives,” but Adria was not listed among them.

9MCGC, p. 111.

10 Leonard, pp. 5, 18, 26.

11MCGC, pp. 106, 476.

12 Waverly K. Winfree, The Laws of Virginia (Richmond, 1971), pp. 344-47. This Act of Assembly passed at the session of 21 May-9 July 1730 to break the entail on part of the land “formerly called Longfield but lately called and known by the Name of Curles,” states that Thomas1 HARRIS left an only daughter, Mary, wife of Thomas LIGON, and an only son, William HARRIS, and details the LIGON descendants.

13 LIGON, op. cit., p. 843, without citing proof, states that she was Joane OSBORNE.

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2. MARY2 HARRIS (Thomas1) deposed 2 Dec. 1684 that she was aged about 64.14 She married, by 1649,15 Thomas LIGON, who was baptized 11 Jan. 1623/4 at Sowe, Warwickshire, the eldest son of Thomas LYGON (about 1577-1626) and his (2) wife Elizabeth PRATT (1602-1631).16 He came to Virginia in the 1640s, was Burgess for Henrico, 165617 and was lieutenant colonel of militia and surveyor of Henrico County until his death.18 Thomas LIGON left a will, now lost, 10 Jan. 1675/6-16 March 1675/6.19 Mary made an agreement with her brother Maj. William2 HARRIS that he should have the “whole profits of the surveyor’s place” until her eldest son should come of age and half of the profits thereafter. Testimony as to this agreement was recorded 1 Nov. 1679.20 By deed of gift, 29 April 1691, Mary2 (HARRIS) LIGON conveyed to her “loving sons, Richard LIGON and Hugh LIGON,” 200 acres lying in Curles, Henrico County, “being part of a greater divident granted unto Captain Thomas HARRIS deceased and given by will of said Thomas HARRIS to his daughter Mary LIGON,” to be equally divided between them.21 Mary LYGON, Senr., left a will 18 April 1703/3-1 Feb. 1703/4.22

Issue: [LIGON]23 4. Thomas3, born about 1651, died before 20 Aug. 1678, unmarried;24 5. WILLIAM3; 6. JOHAN3; 7. RICHARD3; 8. Matthew3, born about 1659, died before 1 May 1689, without issue:25 9. Hugh3, born about 1661, held 150 acres in Henrico County, 1704, married (1), 1688-89, Elizabeth WALTHALL, orphan daughter of William WALTHALL,26 and (2), between June 1711

14 Henrico Co. Deeds & Wills 1688-97, p. 107. Since she was not named in the muster, 1624/5, she was probably closer to age 60.

21 Henrico Co. Deeds & Wills 1688-97, pp. 231-32. The title to this land was finally settled, 1 Nov. 1706, by equal division between Matthew4 LIGON, son of Richard, and William4 LIGON, as heir of his brother Thomas4, son and heir of William3 LIGON (Henrico Co. Wills & Deeds 1706-09, pp. 4-7).

and Dec. 1713,27 Jane (PEW) PRICE, widow of 6. John3 PRICE (see PRICE), but had no known issue; 10. MARY3.

3. WILLIAM2 HARRIS (Thomas1), born about 1629, was heir to “Longfield,” later known as “Curles.” His inheritance of the plantation is established through a suit, John BROADNAX against William SOANE, 1 Oct. 1700, to clear title to the land and establish boundaries.28 He served as a justice of Henrico, Burgess for Henrico, 1652, 1653, 1656, 1658,29 and major of militia of Henrico and Charles City. On 3 Oct. 1670 he was ordered paid £25 “for his Srvice in the Westerne discovery.”30 He left will 20 April 1678-1 Feb. 1678/9,31 but was dead by 7 Oct. 1678 when the inventory of his estate was ordered made.32

He married (1) —– and (2) Alice —–, whose (2) husband, George ALVES (died 173433), of New Kent County, in a suit, April 1683, concerning her son’s indenture, is named as having married the “relict of Major William HARRIS deceased.”34 Alice took her sons to New Kent County.

5. WILLIAM3 LIGON (Mary2 HARRIS, Thomas1), born about 1653, was a major of militia. On 2 April 1682 he “set up his name at the Court Door and thereby published his intentions for England.”36 He married Mary TANNER, daughter of Joseph TANNER and his wife Mary (who later married Gilbert PLATT). On 1 April 1679 Mrs. PLATT made a deed of gift to her daughter Mary, wife of Mr. William LYGON.37 Mary PLATT’s will, dated 10 March 1699/1700,38 named daughter Mary LIGGON and grandchildren Thomas, Joseph, Phebe and Lucretia LIGGON.

35 Henrico Co. Wills & Deeds 1677-92, pp. 90-91. The will was witnessed by Alice HARRIS, his step-mother, and by Richard3 LIGON and his wife Mary, and named “cozen Richard LIGON” a legatee. The HARRIS land “at the Ware [Weir]”, left to Thomas3 by his father, was devised to “my sister-in-law [half-sister] Love HARRIS.” This was part of a patent for 1202 acres, 7 Sept. 1671, to Maj. William2 HARRIS (Patent Bk. 6, p. 496).

6. JOHAN3 LIGON (Mary2 HARRIS, Thomas1) deposed 1 Oct. 1683 as wife of Robert HANCOCK that she was about 30 years old.49 HANCOCK received a deed of gift from his mother-in-law Mrs. Mary LIGON, 2 Feb. 1684/5,50 and held 860 acres in Henrico County, 1704. He left a will, 18 Oct. 1708-1 March 1708/9,51 and Johan HANCOCK left a will, 22 Sept. 1726-7 Nov. 1726.52

Issue: [HANCOCK] 23. William4; 24. Robert4, living 1729,53 married, by 2 Feb. 1712/3. Margaret —–;54 25. Sarah4, married, 1688-89,55 Arthur MOSELEY, Jr., born 1655, who held 450 acres in Henrico County, 1704, married (2) 16. Elizabeth (COX) JAMESTON (see COXE) and left will 22 Feb. 1728/9-6 July 1730;56 26. Mary4, married, by 1 June 1708 when her father deeded them 100 acres,57 John HATCHER who held 215 acres in Henrico County, 1704, and

was living on Pamlico River, Edgecombe Co., N.C., 25 June 1736, when he sold land deeded to him by his father Edward HATCHER;58 27. Johan4, given 200 acres by her father, 1 June 1708,59 married, 5 April 1700,60 Samuel HANCOCK, carpenter, who held 100 acres in Henrico County, 1704, and left will 1 Sept. 1760-6 Feb. 1761;61 28. Phoebe4, married (1) Thomas BAILEY of Varina Parish who held 251 acres in Henrico County, 1704, and left will dated 21 Dec. 1723,62 and (2) Nicholas GILES;63 29. Elizabeth4, married 23. John Sutton4 FARRAR (see FARRAR).

7. RICHARD3 LIGON (Mary2 HARRIS, Thomas1), deposed 1 Dec. 1693 he was aged 26 or 27.64 Upon coming of age he assumed his father’s place as surveyor of Henrico County, according to the agreement made with his uncle. On 8 May 1704 he petitioned the Assembly requesting that he be restored to the place of surveyor, from which he had been suspended, 26 Aug. 1703, and again, 19 April 1705, he petitioned the Assembly for an allowance for surveying the land (5,040 acres) appropriated for the use of the French refugees at Manakintown who had come to Virginia, 1700.65 He held 1028 acres in Henrico County, 1704. His will, now lost, was presented by his executor, Mathew LIGON, 2 March 1723/4.66

He married, between 20 Aug. 1678 and 1 April 1681, Mary WORSHAM, daughter of William and Elizabeth (?LITTLEBURY) WORSHAM.67

Issue: [LIGON] 30. Matthew4, of Cumberland County, left will 1 April 1764-14 Sept. 1764,68 married Elizabeth ANDERSON;69 31. Richard, Jr., to whom with Matthew4 LIGON a patent for 290 acres in Henrico County was signed in the General Court, Oct. 1706, under survey of 15 March 1705/6;70 32. Henry4, of Prince Edward

County, left will 10 Nov. 1759-14 Dec. 1769,71 married his cousin 19. Sarah4 LIGON, who left will 2 July 1784-Jan. 1785;72 33. Sarah4, married, by 1 June 1708,73 Richard GRILLS, who moved to North Carolina and left will 1 Feb. 1719/20-4 April 1720;74 34. Mary4, married Capt. John COLEMAN who, Dec. 1688, chose his brother Robert as his guardian,75 owned 200 acres in Prince George County, 1704, which he and his wife Mary sold 8 May 1725,76 purchasing, 13 May 1725, 185 acres on Whipponock Creek,77 which fell into Dinwiddie County, 1752.

10. MARY3 LIGON (Mary2 HARRIS, Thomas1), born about 1663, married 6. Thomas3 FARRAR and died before 1686 when he remarried.

William SWANN who, 5 Nov. 1635, patented 1200 acres in James City County on the south side of James River, west from Smith’s Mount to the half way Necke,1 naming among the headrights Jon. SWAN and Edwd. SWAN, and died 28 Feb. 1637/8 in his 52nd year,2 has been stated to be identical with a Mr. William SWAYNE who was listed, 23 June 1620, along with Messrs. Arthur, Thomas and William SWAYNE, as allowed each a share of stock in the Virginia Company which had been transferred to them by Sir Thomas GATES.3 In 1621 Mr. Arthur SWAYNE and associates were arranging to transport and settle 100 persons in Virginia and, 20 Dec. 1624, the arrival in Virginia of the Flyinge Harte of Flushing, sent out by Mr. Arthur SWAYNE, William CONSTABLE and others, was announced.4

Although the name of Arthur SWAYNE is once written in the records of the Virginia Company as SWANN, no evidence is known to establish that William SWANN who patented land in Virginia in 1635 is identical with a William SWAYNE who held a share in the Virginia Company. Since there is a difference of five years between the age at death of William SWANN as stated in the family register and the baptismal record of William SWAYNE who was a member of the Virginia Company, identity with that man seems unlikely. If there were two William SWAYNEs who were members of the Virginia Company, the possibility that the other man was the Virginia settler exists, but no connection between the SWAYNEs, who were London merchants, and the SWANN family of Southfleet and Denton, Kent, has been established. The son and grandson of William SWANN of Virginia used the arms of this Kentish family.

William Glover Stanard in listing members of the Virginia Council5 stated that Thomas SWANN of “Swann’s Point,” Surry County, was born in Virginia. No evidence has been found to confirm this statement, and thus to establish that William SWANN was in Virginia

1 Patent Bk. 1, p. 293. This patent was renewed, 10 March 1638/9, by Thomas SWANN as due in right of “his late father William SWAN” (ibid., p. 625).

2 Family record, compiled by Samuel SWANN (1653-1707), owned in 1919 by a descendant in North Carolina, V XXVIII, pp. 30-32. He was buried at “Swann’s Point,” Surry County, beside his (1) wife.